The Spirited Seventh Heaven ...

71jason

71jason

Well-Known Member
Bairstow said:
I won't be able to see TurtleTrek or Antarctica until the fall, but that is worrying, especially when Manta was such a home run.
Sea World really seemed to have some good momentum going for them in 2012.
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I agree on Manta, but my friends seem to split 50/50--you either love it or ride and once and swear "never again." Turtle Trek--I'd do Stitch over this. Hell, maybe even Ellen's Energy Adventure. Let my pass lapse before crowds went down, so never done the new penguin ride, but even employees mock it in private.

In other words, unless you like the shows, I recommend a day at Aquatica--or your hotel pool.
 
culturenthrills

culturenthrills

Well-Known Member
71jason said:
They still make me sneak in to see the polar bears rather than wait in line for a 20-year-old crappy ride. But yeah, agreed on all points.



Hasn't been InBev in a while. The parks are their own entity now--some small consortium of the Busch family, I believe. But while Busch was better than Harcourt, I always get the feeling no one who truly understands the business have ever run those parks. Everything is just a little bit off.
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Oh, I know it isn't owned by InBev. I just hate them for their forced takeover of AB setting in motion where we are today. I grew up going to BGW and how lucky we were to have a park that beautiful and well themed outside of Disney. Sad to see what is going on now.
 
lazyboy97o

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
71jason said:
Hasn't been InBev in a while. The parks are their own entity now--some small consortium of the Busch family, I believe. But while Busch was better than Harcourt, I always get the feeling no one who truly understands the business have ever run those parks. Everything is just a little bit off.
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The Busch family may own some stock, but otherwise the company is publicly traded with Blackstone still holding a considerable chunk.
 
Bairstow

Bairstow

Well-Known Member
71jason said:
I agree on Manta, but my friends seem to split 50/50--you either love it or ride and once and swear "never again." Turtle Trek--I'd do Stitch over this. Hell, maybe even Ellen's Energy Adventure. Let my pass lapse before crowds went down, so never done the new penguin ride, but even employees mock it in private.

In other words, unless you like the shows, I recommend a day at Aquatica--or your hotel pool.
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Hm.
We're still planning on doing SeaWorld for a day on our upcoming Diagon Alley trip, mostly because it's so cheap.
If that just means we try riding every seat on Manta and Kraken it's still a nice day in Orlando.
 
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culturenthrills

culturenthrills

Well-Known Member
Bairstow said:
Hm.
We're still planning on doing SeaWorld for a day on our upcoming Diagon Alley trip, mostly because it's so cheap.
If that just means we try riding every seat on Manta and Kraken it's still a nice in Orlando.
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I like SeaWorld. The shows are great esp Blue Horizons and the day and nighttime Shamu shows. I like the nighttime one better. There is plenty to do there for the day between the shows, rides and animals. Most of the food options are pretty good too. It is a good park still just needs some improvement. Love Aquatica. Just for Roa's Rapids alone.
 
BryceM

BryceM

Well-Known Member
I like SeaWorld in that I think it's a pretty park (in some places), and I love the roller coasters. Kraken, Manta and Journey to Atlantis make the day for me. Everything else, I can easily skip, besides the aquariums. I really dislike pretty much all of the shows. I haven't experienced Antarctica yet, and I have no desire to.
 
B

Bolna

Well-Known Member
Talking on about how to do soft openings: DLP had an interesting approach for this with Ratatouille. And I think they used that progress for Toy Story Playland as well. They sent out emails to the AP holders as well as the Shareholder's Club (you can become a member if you own 100 shares in Euro Disney SCA) members and they were able to sign up for soft opening weekends when the ride was going to be open. I think everyone was able to sign up for themselves plus a certain number of guests (not sure whether it was one, two or three). Spaces were limited, but certainly not as limited as the Disney Parks Blog meet ups. These weekends were announced only a few weeks beforehand (I think like three weeks ahead of time).
 
Mike S

Mike S

Well-Known Member
Having never been to Sea World and hearing all this talk, it sounds like I'm not really missing much. I'll just stick with Disney and Universal.
 
Bairstow

Bairstow

Well-Known Member
Mike S said:
Having never been to Sea World and hearing all this talk, it sounds like I'm not really missing much. I'll just stick with Disney and Universal.
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It's worth a visit if you've never been.
Manta is the most beautiful roller coaster ever built, the Arctic animal exhibit is really well done, and the Pirate-themed seal show is possibly the funniest theme park show in Orlando.
More importantly, it's dirt-cheap.
 
Mike S

Mike S

Well-Known Member
Bairstow said:
It's worth a visit if you've never been.
Manta is the most beautiful roller coaster ever built, the Arctic animal exhibit is really well done, and the Pirate-themed seal show is possibly the funniest theme park show in Orlando.
More importantly, it's dirt-cheap.
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I'll probably go sometime, I'm just really in no rush. Also out of curiosity I just watched a video of the Antarctica ride for the first time. What a waste of trackless ride vehicles :facepalm:
 
Cesar R M

Cesar R M

Well-Known Member
Bairstow said:
Wasn't Rise of the Guardians the beginning of a long, upward trend in Dreamworks' stock?

Sadly, I see this current setback playing out by Dreamworks just farming out more and more of its grunt work to its cheaper studios in India.

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I remember how RISE OF THE GUARDIANS tanked badly at box office.
Then it somehow recovered a bit thanks to international markets.
but it recovered by a hundred millions thanks to home sales.

And that thing you mentioned wouldn't be any surprise.
I read horrible news about hollywood now using international studios that have foreing government money support (like those studios in Canada) to literally slash the costs at the expense of the employee's stability.
 
MichWolv

MichWolv

Born Modest. Wore Off.
Premium Member
Sea World? How'd that discussion get in here? My family and I hadn't been to Sea World in years, but bought AP's that spanned December 2012-2013. We had a couple of trips during that time, and hit Sea World 7 or 8 days. The short summary is that it was well worth the $85 or so each for the APs, but I would have been annoyed paying that much for a day (the deal was pay for a day, get a year).

Good things

We thought the three big rides (Kraken, Manta, and Journey to Atlantis) were all very good. We liked the aquariums all over the park -- particularly my four year old animal lover. Turtle Trek and Shark Encounter are attractions that are worthy of any park, and the Dolphin and Killer Whale shows were great as well. The holiday themed ice show followed by fireworks was very good. Polar Express was fun. And the viewing and feeding opportunities for seals and sea lions, dolphins, beluga whales, walrus, and other animals were great.

Bad Things

Antarctica is a waste of a great technology. They blew it. Food is terrible -- overpriced, unspecial, and bad enough to actually detract from the day. Kids area is OK, but the rides are not all that much fun, and climbing area, while huge, is limited in what there is to do. The rest of the shows, beyond those already mentioned, were just "eh". Not terrible, but not memorable either.
 
NowInc

NowInc

Well-Known Member
Cesar R M said:
I remember how RISE OF THE GUARDIANS tanked badly at box office.
Then it somehow recovered a bit thanks to international markets.
but it recovered by a hundred millions thanks to home sales.

And that thing you mentioned wouldn't be any surprise.
I read horrible news about hollywood now using international studios that have foreing government money support (like those studios in Canada) to literally slash the costs at the expense of the employee's stability.
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Outsourcing in the CG industry is hardly new. However, It won't be to India. Shanghai is a HUGE market for cheap CG/2D labor, and has been for over a decade.

The entire industry itself is collapsing, but not because of outsourcing...its because of greed. Digital Domain ring any bells? They had several "studios" spread globally and went under really fast. Shady practices (such as CHARGING students to be interns there for class credit..essentially them PAYING to work) throughout all levels of the company forced them into the inevitable closure. (ironically, they won an oscar for life of pi that same year, AFTER they were gone). CG Artists work for a fraction of what we used to due to the knowledge that there is always going to be a "cheaper" options, but not from outsourcing. Locally, companies will snag up anyone fresh out of college and pay them almost nothing in exchange for them to have "bragging rights". They are capitalizing on fanboy dreams, seriously. Companies like ILM flat out say "You can tell people you worked on star wars". THAT should not be a job perk. This goes all the way to the top, and things like writers, concept artists, animators...important people who assure the quality of the final product, are being basically done by those with little/no experience, while the high ups get a huge huge huge pay boost in the end.

Add to that the insane over saturation of CG films the last few years...all trying to be the next "pixar". Sure a lot of these end up breaking even or even making a profit with home movie sales, but no where near as much as it used to.

It's really hard to describe unless you've been watching it go on for years.
 

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